UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.  – The Lafayette baseball team kept the Penn State hitters off balance for the majority of Wednesday night at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park, but the Nittany Lions edged the Leopards 3-2 in the Maroon and White's fifth game in four days.
 
Freshman Ethan O'Connor made his fourth start of the season and provided the Leopards (14-25, 8-9 PL) with a quality start, tossing a career-high 5.0 innings and allowing just two runs on three hits with no walks and two strikeouts.
 
The Nittany Lions (18-18, 1-13 B1G) opened the scoring in the second inning with a deep home run to left center, but O'Connor was able to retire the next three in order. He faced trouble again in the fifth when Penn State had a lead-off triple and O'Connor struck out the next batter and got some defensive help as sophomore catcher Hunter Silvernail caught a would-be base stealer to end the threat.
 
Senior Richard Villa had a 3-for-5 day with a double and an RBI that helped the Leopards cut the lead to 3-2 in the seventh when junior Jake Siegocki pinch hit and drew a walk, senior Spencer Rouse followed with a hit and sophomore Ethan Stern reached on an error to score Lafayette's first run. Villa followed it up with a sharply hit ball to center to bring home Rouse.
 
Junior Trey Durrah was also 3-for-5 on the night and Rouse extended his on-base streak to 23 games with a walk in the fourth inning and went 1-for-4 at the dish with a run scored.
 
After O'Connor, Lafayette pieced it together on the bump with freshman Stephen Turzai, going 1.0 inning with a run allowed and a strikeout before senior Andrew Marra worked a clean eighth, retiring the Nittany Lions in order. Freshman Nicholas Maiorano allowed a few base runners in the eighth, but kept it a one-run game.
 
Lafayette made it interesting in the ninth as the top of the order did its job with freshman Justin Johnson leading off the inning with a hit, Stern also singled, and Durrah had the third single of the inning, but Johnson was thrown out at the plate to end the game.
 
The Leopards now turn their attention back to Patriot League after a busy week, staying in central Pennsylvania for a doubleheader with Bucknell on Saturday at noon before traveling to conference-leading Navy for two on Sunday.
 
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